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Butterflies, Bees & an Old Friend

Gathering lavender amid rocky ground / I snip silver stems as all around / from spike to purple spike, drunken bees / lazily lumber and brush by my fingers as they please.

The Lavender Festival was so sweet! It was very well organized, with friendly and helpful staff. Just busy enough for laughter and snippets of conversation, with a sense of happy bustle, but not so crowded that it was a challenge to enjoy the natural beauty all around. There were glorious mountain views and lavender everywhere I looked.

I walked the labyrinth, picked two bunches of heady stems — one each of French and English varieties — purchased a fine basket from a Tanzanian women’s cooperative. The basket will, naturally, hold knitting yarn and add to the general controlled mayhem of my room.

On the Trip Home

The clumps of lavender were in constant motion from a slight breeze and from the myriad of butterflies and honeybees. It was comforting to see so many bees with all the concern about hive failures.

I also met an old friend from work and his wife. We crossed paths twice, disagreed on finance and politics and laughed, just like always. I left them pondering baskets and pottery at the festival sales booths and took a psychedelic-painted shuttle back to the parking lot with my tired feet and great finds.

On the way home I stopped at a local roadside restaurant and ate fried fish and french fries — with sweet tea and hush puppies, of course. Just a lovely day.